Druckman: Fast for Disengaged Communities Next Week

Chairman Chaim Druckman of the B'nei Akiva Yeshivas Center called on the heads of the center's yeshivas to participate in a day of prayer and fasting, next Wednesday, over the Israeli government's destruction of Jewish communities in northern Samaria and Gaza in 2005. In a letter to the institutions, Rabbi Druckman wrote that the optional fast should also reflect what he called "the existential danger hanging over our heads if we do not return to the path of faith and building the country."

The main gathering of the day will take place at 3:45 at the Hurva synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City. It will include a short seminar, penitential "selichot" prayers, regular afternoon prayers and a memorial observance that will continue until it's time for evening prayers. Rabbi called on the chain's yeshivas and girls' high schools to hold their own observances if they cannot attend the central one.